Our own refuge was in the Hotel Dvor, once a convent, now a high-end boutique hotel with the air of a rambling country inn: wooden galleries, inner courtyards, wide views over hillsides of vines. In the evening, we followed Casanova’s journey in reverse and crossed the border to have dinner in a favourite restaurant in the back alleys of Venice, just 90 minutes’ drive away.
Another day found us in the Soča Valley, with its deep gorges and canyons – the Soča is one of the most dramatic Alpine rivers in Europe. Resembling the wild landscapes of New Zealand, the area was chosen as a location for the 2008 film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The Soča is Slovenia’s adventure-sports mecca. There is hiking and skiing in the mountains, but it is the foaming turquoise waters of the Soča River that can provide an adrenaline rush for rafters, kayakers and canoeists – some rapids are so wild that stretches of the river are closed – as well as a soothing setting for fly fishermen. In the river’s clear waters, you can stalk brown and rainbow trout, as well as the fabled marble trout, which can grow to over a metre long.
In the old town of Ptuj – pronunciation is aided by imagining a forceful spitting action – we found a man making costumes for one of the strangest festivities in Europe. Participants dress in an all-enveloping sheep’s fleece with a belt of heavy cow bells and a terrifying woolly, feathered mask. They sport a coloured beak for a nose, white beads for teeth and a long lolling red tongue. This is the Kurent, a character who parades through the streets of Ptuj behind a devil dressed in red, in the days leading up to Shrove Tuesday. An ancient pagan character, adored by the residents of Ptuj, the Kurent is part fertility god, part carnival mischief-maker, part conqueror of winter.
North of Ljubljana, we crossed the Kamnik-Savinja Alps to the mountain village of Luče, where we stayed in a treehouse cabin in the grounds of Hiša Raduha. Built in 1875, the main house has been transformed into a stylish country inn, with floors paved with stones from the riverbed and walls lined with walnut and lime-washed larch. Brother and sister Kristina and Filip Breznik presided over a splendid dinner, produced by their mother Martina, a member of the Slow Food movement. Every ingredient was local, with most coming from their own gardens and orchards. Dinner began with an apple soup flavoured with turmeric and ended with an apple soufflé served with biscuit crumb and pistachio ice cream.